


Silence

by missthropphasapieshop



Category: Chess - Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson
Genre: Angst, F/M, Introspection, Past Anatoly Sergievsky/Florence Vassy, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 02:40:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2565263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missthropphasapieshop/pseuds/missthropphasapieshop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following Anatoly's return to Russia, he and Svetlana contemplate their lives together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silence

**Author's Note:**

> Based on RAH 2008 performance.

“Are you cold?” Anatoly weakly attempted to break the heavy silence between him and his wife.

“No, I’m fine.” Svetlana took her refuge in that silence; she didn’t know quite how she would hold up without it.

“You’re shivering.”

“I’m fine, Anatoly.” She fixed him with an icy glare.

“Come here.” He pulled her into his arms.

Her armour cracked, and she smiled and laughed softly. But then she looked into his face, and her smile turned sad. He didn’t want to be here. It was by fault of necessity, and he was trying to make the best of a bad situation.

She still loved him, but she suspected that now it was a wholly one-sided love. If he did still hold any flame for her, in some deep, abandoned shadow in his heart, it was not the kind of love it used to be. He was only here again, with her, because his heart belonged to the other woman. Or at least he thought it did. It was a bitter victory then, that she had him back within her arms. But then this was hardly surprising. She had been competing for Anatoly’s affections for almost the entire time she’d known him. They’d met because he was an appropriate class match. Their relationship made their families happy. But to begin with, he’d been a sweet, generous, and attentive partner. He’d had his chess, oh he’d always had that, but he’d always made time for her, time for  _them_. But as their marriage aged and children appeared around them, his attention slowly slipped away.

His entire world revolved around chess, and his family ebbed into moons in his orbit. So she tried to stop caring. She stopped emotionally investing herself in his training, his wins and his losses. It honestly didn’t matter to her anymore; she just wanted her husband back. So it didn’t come as a surprise when he failed to invite her to accompany him to the World Chess Championship. It should not have been surprising when he found a woman who was far more alluring to him while he was in Merano. But it was. It stung. She wouldn’t let herself really _feel_  it, but Svetlana had hoped her deepest of hearts that he would find his way back to her, and they could be the couple they once were. But this other woman was everything she was not. This other woman shared his passion, she brought him freedom, her body was unmarred by childbirth. Even her name was romantic. _Florence_. So now Svetlana employed silence as her shield. Anatoly did not love her, so how could she risk letting her heart believe he might?

* * *

Svetlana’s soft laughter lasted but a second, and then the dense quiet resumed. Ever since he returned, everything was tense. Anatoly would have known it would be, had he given it any thought, but it’s presence allowed him to ruminate on his past year. Dangerously so. Even as he held his wife, he thought of another woman. A woman that even he had known he could not keep forever.  _Florence_. And her very presence lies thick within the air. He knew Svetlana still loved him, in her own warped way, but how could it matter? How could it stop his heart from lusting after one he could not have?


End file.
